Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Caracas (Agenzia Fides) - Five seminarians have been sent by the Diocese of San Cristóbal to the Apostolic Vicariate of Caronì, who in the month of August and in various indigenous communities will pastorally accompany the Pemón people.
The five seminarians from Táchira accepted the invitation of Bishop Mario Moronta and Bishop Juan Alberto Ayala, and will go out to the people and proclaim the Good News of the Gospel. The bishops emphasize the importance of living this missionary experience in the last year of priestly formation. During the Eucharistic celebration, during which the candidates for the priesthood were sent, Bishop Gonzalo Ontiveros expressly emphasized the importance of "being active protagonists of evangelization and engaging in concrete missionary commitment". The Vicar Apostolic also invited indigenous peoples to engage in missionary work in their own communities. For their part, the seminarians expressed their joy at the mission in the indigenous communities and underlined that this initiative was understood as a response to Pope Francis' invitation to start the mission ad gentes.
Carlos Parra, one of the seminarians sent to the parish of San Miguel de Caracol, in the heart of Gran Sabana, said that "mission is an authentic response to Jesus' call, who asks us not to stop talking about what what we have seen and heard".
The Pemón are an indigenous community in Venezuela living in the Gran Sabana and Canaima National Park in the state of Bolívar, specifically in the municipalities of Gran Sabana, Raúl Leoni and Sifontes, on the borders with Brazil and Guyana. The basic organizational unit in the community of Pemón is the family, marriage is the fundamental key to their formation and in which all members have blood ties. After marriage, the couple preferably settles in the house of the wife's family. (EG) (Agenzia Fides, 8/8/2022)
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